The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout, we’re developing Fury — the first robotic foundation model for defense — to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. It’s not just a leap in autonomy, it’s a force multiplier built for real-world conflict. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.
The Role
We're looking for our first Hardware Engineer with a mechanical focus to take full ownership of the hardware development across Scout’s robotic platforms. This is a foundational role: you'll design, build, and validate everything from vehicle testbeds and actuator subsystems to ruggedized compute enclosures and field-ready payload integrations. You won't be handed requirements, you'll help define them. This role means rapidly iterating on real-world systems, designing for environmental resilience, and solving gnarled problems. You’ll work across disciplines and domains, collaborating tightly with our software engineers, mission operations team, and external partners to ensure our systems deliver dominance in the field.
We’re a startup. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the hardware foundation for the AGI-powered future of defense.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design, build, and deployment of mechanical and electromechanical systems across ground and aerial platforms
- Architect test systems for actuators, sensors, and compute modules, including dynos, validation rigs, and instrumentation setups
- Own all mechanical roles related to testing: fixture design, hardware selection, wiring, environmental sealing, and system validation
- Integrate hardware with electrical and software systems in field-ready robotic platforms
- Collaborate closely with mission operations and software/autonomy teams to ensure real-world readiness and performance
- Troubleshoot hardware in the shop and in the field
- Develop scalable, rugged, and modular hardware architectures that can evolve across mission types and environments
- Author documentation for test plans, validation results, integration procedures, and hardware specs
- Contribute to a rapid, iterative development loop between R&D and mission deployment
Qualifications
- 2+ years of experience in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, or hardware test engineering, preferably in robotics, aerospace, automotive, or defense
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related field
- Strong 3D CAD skills to design fixtures, enclosures, and electromechanical systems
- Experience selecting and integrating motors, gearboxes, sensors, and DAQ systems
- Hands-on experience with dyno/fixture design, troubleshooting, and ruggedization
- Comfortable creating basic PCB interfaces and managing wiring for sensor/motor systems
- Broad test and analysis skills in the areas of thermal, structural, fluid, shock & vibe and environmental
- Strong communication, documentation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills
- Basic proficiency in Python and MATLAB; familiarity with embedded C/C++ is a plus
- Bonus: Experience designing and testing mobile robotic platforms, ruggedized electromechanical systems or military payloads
- Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities
Why Join Scout
- Work to ensure US military dominance far into the future
- Define the hardware architecture of our robotic systems from the ground up
- Work on real-world autonomy with real-world impact
- Join a mission-driven team focused on national security
- Ship to the field fast and iterate even faster
- Participate in early-stage upside with meaningful equity ownership
- Backed by investors including Draper Associates and Booz Allen Ventures
Benefits
- Competitive base salary and meaningful equity
- Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution
- Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar
- Catered lunch every day and fully stocked kitchen
- EV charging
- Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)
Top Skills
What We Do
Founded in 2024, Scout AI is a venture-backed defense technology company building the AI brain for defense robotics. Fury, Scout's Vision-Language-Action foundation model, is engineered to transform uncrewed platforms into intelligent, mission-adaptive agents. Designed for use across ground, air, sea, and space domains, Fury enables warfighter-level reasoning and one-to-many robotic coordination. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with a center of excellence in Maine, Scout ensures the U.S. and its allies lead the future of defense.
